Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of what they said is the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room.
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No one has shown symptoms of ricin poisoning after the toxin was found Thursday at a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel.

Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, authorities said, but other tests to confirm it are under way.

Meanwhile, the reason the substance was in the room remains a mystery.

"We don't know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The FBI, which is assisting in the case, said it saw no link to terrorism, according to spokesman Richard Kolko.

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

"Found it while retrieving items from a hotel room." Ah, don't the maids throw everything out of a room when the guests change? This sounds real strange and I am betting there is more to this than is being said. Last thing Vegas needs is a story about ricin possibly being put in the food on 50 buffets or in the water supply.

Posted by: Kempermanx at February 29, 2008 06:30 AM (qvT/A)

5
Kempermanx yeah, there is most definitely more going on here.
My guess is the original suspicion was meth lab. I've got a master's in biochemistry, and I could follow the "recipe" to get 100% pure ricin from the castor beans, but it would take time, effort, and some equipment.
So, here's my guess: somebody reported odd things going on in an extended stay hotel, which everybody thought was drug related. I've got a friend who is a fire fighter, and he's been in on several meth lab busts for some reason. He said most of the guys don't don the whole haz-mat suit because it's really hot and a pain in the ass .... meth lab stuff is toxic enough that I'd wear the suit, but I'm not a 20 something year old man either.
Anyway, the guys who went in thinking it was a meth lab or something similar got a scary surprise here.
Again, just a guess.

7
Mike Z uh, really? To 100% purity? In a hotel room?
Organic chemistry stinks (quite literally) and requires some fairly obvious apparatus....
Now, it is possible (extremely improbable) but possible that there are some pin-head organic chem students who thought this would be a funny prank and are going to be in big trouble.
Extremely improbable.

Posted by: funky chicken at February 29, 2008 07:10 AM (I+jPP)

8Abrin could be coming to a neighborhood near you soon. The stuff is similar to ricin, but is said to be many, many times more deadly than its cousin (about 75 times as deadly in mice). Just like ricin, it should be easy to extract.

I doubt it is really 100% pure. I think the guy was speaking figuratively. But getting up there purity-wise isn't very difficult with this stuff.

Posted by: Mike Z. at February 29, 2008 07:16 AM (GLMrI)

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There are analytical chemistry professors all across the nation who are screaming at their newspapers/computers.
100% purity? 100% purity?
But you don't get almost pure ricin out of beans with no training and no equipment.
I'm sticking with my guess that they thought it was a meth lab.

Posted by: funky chicken at February 29, 2008 07:21 AM (I+jPP)

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If you are a legit operation, it's a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to order ricin than purify your own. I remember discussing that as a grad student in the context of attaching the stuff to antibodies to target specific cells, like a tumor. It was a hot research idea back in the day (may still be) but even cheap professors at my school didn't torment their drones by making us experience the glories of ricin extraction.

Posted by: funky chicken at February 29, 2008 07:25 AM (I+jPP)

12But you don't get almost pure ricin out of beans with no training and no equipment.

The chromatography involved is relatively simple and, yes, I suppose they would have to have some training and equipment. I doubt they would have to be formally trained any more than most meth cooks are formally trained.

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I think it would be more accurate to describe the process of ricin production as biochemistry rather than organic chemistry. As to 100% purity, did they determine that by staining with Coomassie, or did they use a more sensitive method? I've seen plenty of protein preps that look lovely by Coomassie, but really nasty by silver. I'd bet that the statement with respect to purity was probably not based upon a rigorous determination, but it's difficult to say. I was told by a law enforcement official some time ago that you would be surprised at how often they catch people in our state alone who are either planning to purify ricin or were attempting it.

Posted by: Crimso at February 29, 2008 10:53 AM (BbB7t)

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And apparently someone was exposed and is now comatose. From what I read, they seemed to be trying to downplay this. There's something funny going on with this. I doubt it will turn out to be someone who was planning on killing his wife...

Posted by: Crimso at February 29, 2008 10:56 AM (BbB7t)

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That stuff scared the shit out of me in '03. We were told that our masks were no defense against it and that it was REALLY easy to make. Well, compared to Sarin etc. So while I at least had some protection against VX, Sarin, Mustard etc., no matter how quickly I could get into my MOPP suit (five to eight minutes depending on how motivated I was. Sarin was great motivation, by the way), against risin it was useless. And now they find it here. Great.